Termination for no reason

Andeep Singh

New Member
Jurisdiction
New Brunswick
I was recently employed by the government to work as a software tester. It was for a 1 year contract job. I did the work the best I could within the 9-5 time slot. However, the employer insisted that I should have completed the tasks assigned within the time given. In fact, I did have difficulty with this in the first week or so but after that I did not get any complaints from the manager that I was taking too much time. I think I performed better than most employees would. However I was then told that my contract would be terminated because I was not meeting performance requirements, and that I was supposed to get things done no matter what. One of the people at the termination meeting said there were employees that worked 200 extra hours to get something dome. First of all, I was getting things done on time, and I can prove this from the notes I made, and second of all, it was not required in the contract that I was supposed to work extra hours and furthermore myself and maybe a couple of others were the only employees sitting there after 5 pm. To me, requiring someone to work outside of the terms of the contract can be a form of abuse, even if this is not a part of official employment standards. I later contacted the HR and discussed this with them, and while the termination letter said that my contract was being terminated because I was not performing up to expectations, she now said that there was no reason and they didn't have to supply a reason (She said that there was not too much "emphasis" on the perfomanace expectations part).
I know that this is allowed by New Brunswick law and so essentially I just have to look for another job, but I'm wondering if anything else can be done. It may be useful for me in future scenarios.
 
I was recently employed by the government to work as a software tester. It was for a 1 year contract job. I did the work the best I could within the 9-5 time slot. However, the employer insisted that I should have completed the tasks assigned within the time given. In fact, I did have difficulty with this in the first week or so but after that I did not get any complaints from the manager that I was taking too much time. I think I performed better than most employees would. However I was then told that my contract would be terminated because I was not meeting performance requirements, and that I was supposed to get things done no matter what. One of the people at the termination meeting said there were employees that worked 200 extra hours to get something dome. First of all, I was getting things done on time, and I can prove this from the notes I made, and second of all, it was not required in the contract that I was supposed to work extra hours and furthermore myself and maybe a couple of others were the only employees sitting there after 5 pm. To me, requiring someone to work outside of the terms of the contract can be a form of abuse, even if this is not a part of official employment standards. I later contacted the HR and discussed this with them, and while the termination letter said that my contract was being terminated because I was not performing up to expectations, she now said that there was no reason and they didn't have to supply a reason (She said that there was not too much "emphasis" on the perfomanace expectations part).
I know that this is allowed by New Brunswick law and so essentially I just have to look for another job, but I'm wondering if anything else can be done. It may be useful for me in future scenarios.

This site is for US Law only.
 
First, are you an H1B employee, or a Canadian citizen/landed immigrant? If the former, then I can't help you.

If you're a citizen or landed immigrant and were with this employer less than a year, then you must be paid at least two weeks' termination pay + accrued vacation pay (at least 4% of the earnings you received at the company, including the termination pay).
 
I would like to remind my fellow mods that we do have an expert on Canadian law here and there's really no need to lock Canadian threads. As long as we have her expertise, there's no reason not to utilize it.
 
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